George,
I really don't like calling it "the force", but if I had to define it I would say it's the drive to accomplish something beyond mere survival/propogation. It's what makes us different from lemmings. It's neither benevolent nor malevolent. It's a tool, it's what we make it. The same drive can produce a Hitler or a Gandhi. It's a question of direction.
Most of us get less optimistic as we get older, but it doesn't follow that the world is a worse place now than it was. Actually, I suspect that it's better. Easy to romanticize the times past, but in reality, unless you were among the ruling class, things were pretty awful in the past, too.
Look at what has happened in the last century:
Weapons exist that have not been used for 50 years.
Racism and sexism still exist, but in large and growing parts of the world, overt expression of racism and sexism are socially and politically unacceptable
Vast inequities exist among nations, but overt colonialism has been banished to the scrapheap.
It's gotten harder and harder to be a dictator.
Real efforts have been made and are being made to end conflicts without fighting, and to deal with the monumental economic messes we've created. Granted, these efforts are clumsy, and have been largely ineffective. But a conscious, collective, effort is being made, and that in itself is a sign of progress. Just hope the efforts get more successful before we wipe ourselves out.
I don't really have a problem with Bill's $50 billion, as long as that money is invested in the economy, keeping people and businesses working. A far cry from the old feudal ways (which still exist in many developing countries) where powerful people stripped the land of everything it could produce, and wallowed in luxuries, investing little or nothing to renew and improve the source of their wealth.
Look up!
Steve |
